Biker bar Chop Shop banned from Hampton Christmas Parade

Friday

Nov 29, 2013 at 2:21 PMNov 29, 2013 at 2:26 PM

SEABROOK — Chop Shop owner Bill Niland says it's discrimination against motorcyclists and the people of Seabrook. Hampton Christmas Parade officials say it's a matter of safety after two years of noncompliance.

Nick B. Reid

SEABROOK — Chop Shop owner Bill Niland says it's discrimination against motorcyclists and the people of Seabrook. Hampton Christmas Parade officials say it's a matter of safety after two years of noncompliance.

The Chop Shop Pub and Grub, a popular biker bar on Route 1 in Seabrook, was informed Wednesday that it won't be allowed to participate in the Hampton Christmas Parade next weekend. The Chop Shop has regularly used its float, which recently featured a 7-foot handmade teddy bear, to promote its Marine Corps Toys for Tots event held the same day at the bar. Last year's fund-raiser netted “multiple U-Hauls full of toys” for the children in need, Niland said.

Joe Jones, the parade's safety committee chairman, said Friday he has witnessed two incidents in the past three parades that have caused him to decide — and the Experience Hampton board to agree — that the Chop Shop shouldn't be allowed in the parade, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7.

Jones, who is a Hampton police sergeant, said the first incident happened right in front of him. The driver of a sport bike in Marelli Square near the end of the parade line spun its tires and created a “smoke show.”

“I walked up to him and said, 'What are you doing?' There were kids around. It's a Christmas parade.”

Niland, who said he was given no specific reasons when his parade application was denied and learned of the rationale through a Hampton Union reporter, remembered the incident cited by Jones and specifically addressed it in an e-mail exchange with John Nyhan, president of Experience Hampton. He said that person, who rode a yellow “rice rocket” very different from the Harley-Davidson bikes typical of the Chop Shop, had no affiliation with the restaurant. Niland said he stopped that rider at the end of the parade line.

“Kid, I don't know who the (expletive) you are, but you did a stupid thing and I suggest you get out of here,” he recalled telling the sport bike rider.

Jones said he witnessed the second incident in North Hampton as the Chop Shop float made its way from Seabrook to its staging area. He said two people on the back of that float were “hanging like the firefighters used to do” off the back of the float, which he noted is a violation of the parade policy and motor vehicle law.

Jones cited the 2006 death of a local child in the Portsmouth parade and said safety is his utmost concern.

“If someone falls from a float or something happens, it's a black eye to everybody,” he said, also noting liability concerns.

Nyhan said the Chop Shop would be considered if it applies to take part in next year's Christmas parade. Jones said he would never recommend the restaurant be allowed to participate.

“It isn't about motorcycles. It's about safety. That's the bottom line,” Jones said. “The Chop Shop seems to be the only one that can't go by the rules or have common sense, I guess.”

Niland said he never heard anything about the North Hampton incident until Friday. He said he asked to represent his business at a board meeting of Experience Hampton — and the board did reconsider his application — but he was not invited to attend.

“You have a concern? Tell me what your concern is. Bring me to a meeting. Tell me to my face what's your concern, and I'll modify our presence in the parade,” he said.

Niland said he hasn't received a phone call from a representative from Experience Hampton, even as dozens of the restaurant's supporters took to the Experience Hampton Facebook page to question the decision to reject its parade application.

“This is such bad publicity for Hampton,” Niland said.

Meanwhile, Chop Shop fans have created a YouTube video about the decision, and it received 1,400 views in its first day, and an Old West-style wanted poster saying, “Not wanted by the town of Hampton. No reward for helping their community.”

Commenters on the Experience Hampton Facebook page have said they're boycotting the parade, Hampton shops and the parade's sponsors because of this incident.

“If I'm not in the parade big … deal it's just a parade, but my customers, they don't see it that way,” Niland said. “In my lifestyle — the biker lifestyle — it's all about respect, something the town of Hampton knows nothing about obviously. If you're going to call a man out, do it to his face. This back-room, behind-doors meetings, that doesn't do it for us.”

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